Glasserton was a parish facing the Solway Firth on the eastern side of the former county of Wigtownshire. Both county and parish ceased to exist following the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1974. The parish had an area of 54.2km2 (20.9 sq. miles) and had 4 neighbouring parishes: Kirkinner, Mochrum, Sorbie and Whithorn.

The parish included the settlements of Big Balcraig, Craiglemine, Glasserton village and Monreith.

Notes for Wigtownshire

The Dumfries and Galloway Family History Society website may point to material of interest to the general researcher. Amongst their publications are indexes for the 1841 census. These are prepared as small booklets, one for each parish, and are alphabetically indexed transcriptions. Obtainable from the D & G FHS, address at website.

The FreeCen Project has a searchable (not browsable) transcription of the whole of Wigtownshire online for the 1841, 1851 and 1861 censuses, with the 1871 census partly completed.

The Wigtownshire Pages is an accumulation of links to various websites with genealogical information about Wigtownshire, including Births, Marriages and Deaths from the Wigtown Free Press, an index of a list of people living in Wigtownshire in 1684, and a small website of monumental inscriptions.

The Glasserton Parish Registers for the Church of Scotland provide records of baptisms (1700-1854), marriages (1700-1819 and 1849-1854) and burials (no records retained). See the FamilySearch Wiki article on Glasserton for other church denominations.

Further Sources of Reference

Please note and respect the copyright warnings on these websites.

GENUKI article on Glasserton. These articles often include a bibliography.

The Gazetteer for Scotland article on the parish of Glasserton. The tabs on the right provide more information, and a map of the parish within its surrounding area, with small settlements highlighted and linked to more information.

The FamilySearch Wiki article on Glasserton provides direct reference to FamilySearch holdings on many topics with respect to the parish.

The National Library of Scotland have a website devoted to maps from the 1600s right up to the present. Comparisons of modern-day and old maps of the same place can be made. From the home page click on "Find by place" and then follow the instructions on the next page. Once you are viewing the place you want, use the slider <----> at the top of the map to compare the layout of roads and the place names of smaller areas, perhaps even farms, with the landscape today. The website takes some getting used to. The One-inch 2nd edition, Scotland, 1898-1904 OS is a series of maps with the parishes delineated. Each of these maps cover an area of 18 x 24 miles and will zoom to comfortable reading size with a couple of mouse clicks on the map itself. Unfortunately, they are not geo-referenced, and it is necessary to go to the OS One Inch 1885-1900 series to locate places by latitude and longitude.

The Statistical Accounts for Scotland In the 1790s and again in the 1830s, the ministers of the all the parishes of the Church of Scotland were asked to provide a description of their parish to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The original account request included 160 questions to be answered. These accounts are available in print in 20 volumes and are also online where it is freely available to browse. The browsing portal is below the viewing area of most computer screens. Scroll down to "For non-subscribers" and click on "Browse scanned pages". This brings you to another page on which one can enter the name of the parish in which you are interested.

Excerpts from The Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885 are provided by Scottish Places. Selections from Groome and other gazetteers from the 19th century are also found on GENUKI.